His voice cracking with emotion, former mayor Milton Milan
apologized Friday for betraying the trust of city residents
before an unsympathetic federal judge who sentenced him to
more than seven years in prison.

"People believed in me and trusted in me. I let them down.
I'm sorry to them, to my family and to my children," Milan
said as his wife wept in the gallery.

U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano was unsparing as he
castigated Milan for taking mob payoffs, using city
contractors to perform free work on his home, laundering
money from a drug dealer, committing insurance fraud, using
vehicles supplied for free by a towing contractor and
selling a stolen computer to an intern.

Milan, the judge said, was "more enamored of the trappings
of the office than his duties."

Because of that, Milan deserved no special consideration,
the judge said.

"Your conduct was pervasive," Pisano said. "It was common
knowledge in the city that Mr. Milan's influence was
available. It is self-evident that a dishonest mayor
undermines the confidence of the public."

The judge gave Milan seven years and three months in
prison, the maximum allowed under federal sentencing
guidelines. He bumped up the sentence proposed by the
probation department after agreeing with Assistant U.S.
Attorney Mary Futcher that the ex-mayor had damaged the
public's confidence in their government.

Milan could be released in less than six years. He will
get credit for time served since his Dec. 21 conviction,
and defendants can be released after serving 85 percent of
their term if they do not violate any rules.

The judge spared Milan a fine, saying he had no ability to
pay. But he found him responsible for $14,761 in
restitution to three victims who sought it - a towing
contractor, an insurance company and a leasing company.

Milan will remain under court supervision for three years
after release. State officials have already permanently
barred him from seeking public office again.

Milan became Camden's first Hispanic mayor on July 1,
1997, a relative political newcomer who convinced voters he
could turn the city around. His sentencing comes with the
city still in a financial crisis and the state considering
a takeover of government operations.

The former mayor appeared in court thinner and paler than
when he was removed from office. He wore a white, prison-
issued T-shirt, khaki pants and blue slip-on sneakers.

"I'd like to apologize to the residents of the city of
Camden for my very poor judgment," Milan said, the closest
he has come to admitting guilt.

After Milan's brief statement, the judge recounted the
former mayor's list of crimes and spoke at length about why
he was giving Milan the maximum sentence.

"When you took office, there was no question that Camden
was a city of great despair," the judge said. "But the
people believed in you. Your own people believed you. You
squandered your opportunities. The people of this city do
have a problem, but they do not deserve to be the
laughingstock of urban America ... you've made them that."

Over the last decade, the city lost 9 percent of its
population, dropping to 79,904 residents. The number of
vacant houses also soared during the period, and U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development lists the city
as the nation's second-poorest. The state funds 70 cents of
every dollar in Camden's budget.

Pisano told Milan he came into office with great promise "
but violated every oath ofoffice."

"It appears to me that it was your purpose to achieve
personal aggrandizement," he said.

"You are a remarkable individual, at least you were,"
Pisano said, recalling Milan's rise from a one-parent
family living on a blighted North Camden street.

"You had a job as the mayor of the city. You had a salary
of $75,000, a driver and a car," Pisano continued. "You now
have nothing."

After sentencing, Milan was returned to the Federal
Correctional Institution at Fairton, Cumberland County,
where he has been held since his conviction. It will be up
to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to determine whether he
serves out his term there or at a correctional facility at
Fort Dix.

Milan was indicted March 29, 2000, by a federal grand jury
in Camden. A jury convicted him of 14 of 19 counts of mail
and wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering, making him
the third Camden mayor in 20 years to be found guilty of
corruption.

The jury found, among other things, that he accepted as
much as $30,000 in payoffs from former Philadelphia/South
Jersey mob boss Ralph Natale between 1996 and 1998;
laundered a $65,000 cash loan in 1994 from now-convicted
drug dealer Jose "JR" Rivera; used part of $7,500 he
skimmed from campaign funds to pay for a trip to Puerto
Rico with friends and supporters in 1997; and staged a
burglary at his business, Atlas Contracting, in 1995 to
collect insurance money.

Milan was stripped of his office the day after his
conviction.

His court-appointed attorney, Richard Coughlin, asked
Pisano on Friday to set aside two of his client's
convictions. The judge turned down therequests.

A pre-sentence report recommended a maximum sentence of 67
months, or five years, seven months. But prosecutors got it
bumped up 20 months, to 87 months, by arguing that Milan
had abused the public trust and damaged the city.

"The defendant decided that his greed was more important
than his duties to the citizens," said Futcher.

Milan grew up in a tough neighborhood on Bailey Street in
North Camden, where homes were as likely to be abandoned as
lived in and drug dealers flanked street corners.

He dropped out of high school and eventually entered the
Marines, where he learned to operate heavy machinery,
became a marksman, went to Beirut, and earned an honorable
discharge. He returned home to Camden in the mid-1980s and
began hanging around with felons and drug dealers.

He started two construction companies and was elected to
city council in 1995. He rose quickly in political ranks
and was named council president on Jan. 1, 1996. He was
already taking bribes from Natale.

In May 1997, he was elected mayor after a brash campaign
that was tainted with accusations that he had been
affiliated with Rivera and had been questioned in a 1988
gangland slaying.

Despite those questions, Milan took a firm grip on the
city's helm. In July 1999, he rocked Trenton when he had
the city file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, until stopping the
proceeding when the state agreed to pay $74 million in aid
it had been holding. While the move scored him points in
some quarters, it hurt the city's financial reputation,
scaring off investors.

As mayor, Milan lived in a nicely rehabilitated home on
North 33rd Street in East Camden. It turned out that much
of the work was performed for free by vendors working on or
seeking government contracts.

Milan's name began surfacing in connection with separate
federal investigations of Rivera, the drug lord, and
Natale, the Mafia boss. Both were key witnesses at his
trial.

On Aug. 16, 1999, federal and county agents raided Milan's
home and office, carting away boxes of materials in search
of evidence.

Throughout the investigation, Milan maintained his
innocence, complaining he was being politically persecuted.

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